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Noah Lyles of the US received the lads’s 100-metre last on the Paris Olympics in a razor-thin picture end over Jamaican Kishane Thompson, changing into the primary American to assert the title in 20 years.
Inside a packed Stade de France on Sunday evening, Lyles crossed the end in a private finest 9.784 seconds to Thompson’s 9.789. Fred Kerley, additionally of the US and the silver medallist on the Tokyo Olympics, completed third in 9.81. Marcel Jacobs, defending champion, completed fifth. It was the primary time in historical past that eight males broke 10 seconds in a wind-legal race.
Lengthy thought of one of many marquee occasions of the complete Olympic Video games, the 100-metre last has catapulted winners to prompt international fame. From 2008 by means of 2016, the occasion was dominated by reigning world file holder Usain Bolt of Jamaica, and whereas no sprinter has run inside a tenth of a second of his quickest time of 9.58, Lyles has been positioning himself for years to inherit the place because the face of worldwide sprinting.
As a current star of the Netflix sequence Dash, Lyles, 27, developed elaborate narratives round himself by means of every season, together with one within the early a part of this yr by bringing a secretive metallic briefcase to every meet, promising to disclose its contents on the US Olympic trials in June. The briefcase contained his operating equipment.
Technically superior on the 200 metres, by which his private better of 19.31 is the third-best all-time, Lyles joked within the sequence that the 200 metres is his “spouse”, whereas the 100 metres is his “mistress”. He may also contest the longer occasion in Paris, the place the primary heats start on Monday.
As the favourite within the 200 metres, Lyles might develop into the primary man since Bolt in 2016 to finish the 100 and 200 double on the video games.
Thompson, 23, grew to become a late favorite for a medal in Paris after operating 9.77 seconds on the Jamaican championships in June, the quickest time on the earth this yr. He was the top-ranked runner after Sunday night’s semi-finals, by which he certified with 9.80.
Sunday evening’s podium reshuffles the continuing dash rivalry between the Jamaicans and Individuals after Jacobs, 29, grew to become the shock winner in Tokyo. Since then, the Italian has struggled with harm and inconsistency, failing to make the 100-metre last within the 2022 and 2023 world championships.
Lyles’ victory got here an evening after the US needed to accept silver and gold within the ladies’s 100-metre last, with St Lucia’s Julien Alfred profitable gold — her nation’s first Olympic medal.
The final American to win the lads’s Olympic 100 metres was Justin Gatlin on the 2004 video games in Athens.
